Spanish armies under Freire and Joaquín Blake y Joyes threatened the French grip on the south of Spain during the summer of 1811.

Marshal Soult, who had just suffered a bloody defeat at the Battle of Albuera in May, left a colleague's army to observe the Anglo-Portuguese and marched south at the end of June.

Freire's army had enjoyed initial success in its campaign against Jean François Leval's weak IV Corps.

At the beginning of August, Freire was joined by Blake's force, which had been shipped to the Region of Murcia by a British naval squadron.

But French cavalry under Pierre Benoit Soult crushed his rear guard at Las Vertientes, east of Cúllar.

Defending against it was the French IV Corps under General of Division Horace François Bastien Sébastiani de La Porta.

In April 1811, Marshal Nicolas Soult began drawing troops away from the area so that he could strike at an Anglo-Portuguese army to the west.

[1] On 1 June 1811, General Manuel Alberto Freire de Andrade y Armijo commanded 14,453 soldiers present under arms in the Army of Murcia.

[2] Taking advantage of French weakness, Freire pushed westward on the Lorca to Baza to Granada highway with the divisions of Creagh, Sanz, and the cavalry.

Agents from Freire's column stirred up the local guerillas, including the band led by the Conde de Montijo.

Hearing reports of Freire's activity and worried about Blake's column, Soult marched away on 24 June, leaving Marmont to face the Allies.

The Spanish general marched rapidly south and his troops were taken on board a British squadron[5] at Ayamonte on 8 July.

Granted his wish, he sailed at the end of July with 7,000 infantry and 500 cavalry in the divisions of José Pascual de Zayas y Chacón and Manuel Lardizabal.

However, Blake and Zayas hurried off to Valencia where they began to prepare the city to face Marshal Louis Gabriel Suchet's army, which hovered to the northeast.

In the face of this advance, La Cuadra abandoned Pozo Alcón on 8 August and fell back to the east in the direction of Huéscar.

When he heard that Godinot was coming down from the northwest, Freire sent O'Donnell's 4,000 men to occupy a blocking position at Zújar and ordered La Cuadra to join him there.

Meanwhile, Freire heard of O'Donnell's rout and slipped away from the Gor ravine in the evening and marched his entire army through Baza at night.

At daylight on 10 August, Soult found the Gor lines empty and ordered Latour-Maubourg to conduct an immediate pursuit.

[11] The French cavalry caught up with Freire's rear guard at Las Vertientes, 10 miles (16 km) east of Baza.

During the campaign, the French captured Charles Cléry, an émigré officer, the son of the servant of King Louis XVI of France.